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Monthly Archives: January 2012

Tasty French dinner, lamb, cake, champaign, wine. Little problem, I still have a run to do.

It’s my father in-law’s birthday and the family is celebrating like only the French now how, a ‘nothing special’ supremely satisfying dinner.We toast some champagne for 66 years of life and eat some appetizers.The main course is with lamb followed by a salad.For dessert it is my wife’s famous chocolate cake. Only taking one helping of my favorite food is unusual but I have hopes of still completing a run after dinner!

Time with my family is most precious.There are few things on earth more satisfying than eating dinner with your family and seeing your busy 17 month old daughter laugh and play.Time lingers, life is good.

My wife and daughter head to bed early and I’ve had about 20 minutes to let the dinner ‘settle’. I don some running attire.

Stepping out of the front door the transformation is immediate.

It’s dark outside and my eyes adjust while my breathing picks up.It is a calm night, the night after a full moon. Beginning the run in the middle of the street is standard issue at this time of day.The Nightrunner moves freely and takes liberties as the king of twilight. Taking tangents across streets, through manicured lawns, down alleys mostly in the direction of choice the whole city feels like a personal playground.

Making my way to the State Capitol Building’s grass lawn I meander over to the Occupy Boise scene and see a few people milling about near the common kitchen area.I then head towards the heart of downtown and run south on 8th street.Everyone here is out entertaining, eating, and drinking, I feel out of place and love it.My entertainment for the evening is top shelf.

But I run to 8th street for more than the downtown scene. 8th street is the Ironman Boise 70.3 finish and I’ve been running the last half mile.I project, reminisce, dream and fantasy about running the race that I’m training for right now.Then, I mostly appreciate the random run down the center of 8th street on a Tuesday night in January.It’s the process and the piece by piece challenge to reach a peak performance that is so rewarding. True, the event itself is the test but it’s the lessons along the way that fill one’s heart with the richness to achieve something more.